Newcastle Reserves were flying high until they went to the Riverside Stadium on Tuesday evening, and were finally beaten 2-1, after leading the game at half time.
Alan Thompson – lots of positives to take out of performance
Of course the Newcastle Reserves these days is nothing more than our very best young players coming through the club, and they continue to do well under new Reserve team manager, Alan Thompson.
The average age of the side is always less than 20, and Thompson took a lot of positives out of the game, despite seeing the team lose their unbeaten start to the season.
The youngsters did well against a Middlesbrough team featuring several players with first-team experience – particularly in the first half.
Manager Thompson told Newcastle United TV yesterday:
“We said to the players how well they’d done at half-time but it’s not just about doing well for 45 minutes, they have to start putting 90 minutes together. But they’re young lads and it’s part of their learning curve.”
“We’re youthful at the moment and we’ve got a few players who have been playing who weren’t available due to internationals. We were young compared to them but it’s good for the young lads to play at a first-team ground against first-team players.”
And on losing for the first time, Thompson admitted:
“It’s disappointing, of course it is, but we’ve had a couple of people making their debuts; Jak Alnwick, Aaron Spear came on and Connor Newton started after a long-term injury so there are positives to take from it.”
We have so many good youngsters coming through the ranks, that if we can get back to the Premier League next May, we will have a good supply of players for the future at the Tyneside club.
Of course we’ll need to buy 4-5 new players next summer, to further strengthen our squad, so we can compete well in the Premier League – the last we would want is another relegation fighting season.
Comments welcome.
5 comments so far
Davy Craig
Oct 8, 2009 at 4:04 PM
Comment #1I think Frank Danquah is going to be a cracking player after seeing him a fair bit so far. Hopefully Lua Lua will be pushing again for a first team place soon.
We have some great young players in the reserves and hopefully we’ll keep a hold of them for the future.
Chris F
Oct 8, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Comment #2we’ll need more than four or five if we go up, that’s for sure. closer to 7 or 8 would probably be needed just to give the squad a bit of variety and competition.
chuck
Oct 8, 2009 at 7:59 PM
Comment #3Yeah always nice to hear we have talented youngsters coming through the pipeline.
I know we went after a bunch of them when the gang of four were running things and signed some apparently decent youngsters.
Some of which may soon be making their debut for the first team.
What came to mind was is this still a continuing policy at the club , as I have`nt heard about any recent signings.
I believe it to be a positive policy and hope it`s an ongoing one.
sirjasontoon
Oct 8, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Comment #4Positive Policy??
Keegan already said Ashley wants to flog any sellable talent.
Sav
Oct 9, 2009 at 2:08 AM
Comment #5Haven’t heard much from Richard Money lately. Is he still in charge of the academy or is he another casualty of the Lord of Misrule?